The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-02-18
g.

as Paul calls it, ..the law of God written in
the heart" Thus each Is ever hearing Of
a court Of justice in himself.
Some sinners are never found ou- in the
world around; they are not openly pun
ished; but for all that they don't escape
They carry . detective within from whom
they might escape if they could tear ont
their very nature. Conscience finds them
out any how conscience does worry the
sinner with remorse.
] must tell you what remorse Is: A fox
was once caught in q trap. but in the morn
ing only one Of his legs was found. The
wise creature when caught concluded that
it would be better to limp back to his den
with three legs. than, having four legs, to
perish in pain. He turned upon his leg and
gnawed it through. The fox teaches you
the exact meaning OF remorse; for the word
means to bite backwards, to gnaw ones
self
Sin finds the sinner out when conscience
devours the soul That heather New
Zealanier understood this, who gave back
a coin that he had stolen from the white
man, because of the quarreling going on
inside him. as he said, between the good
man and the bad man In the newspapers
there Is often notice headed. "Con-
science Money" People who have cheated
the tax-gatherer afterwards send the
money they should have paid hiTn-found
out not by the tax-gatherer, but by their
own conscience Many criminals have
given themselves up to the judge because
the prison. and even death itself, was not
so dreadful as remorse, and some. Ike
Judas. have killed themselves because
death did not seem so terrible as life tort
ured by gully conscience.
Many men have lots OF money and fine
houses and splendid health. and yet the
fixed scowl on the brow. the curled lip. the
fierce eye, the joyless face, the bitter
words, show that they ere not happy.
Whyl Sin has found them out in the
world within, and they will not come to
the Saviour for pardon aud peace.
Even Nero, the monster. had to fly from
the spot where he had caused his mother
to be murdered. Under the lashes of con-
science he fancied that he was haunted by
her angry ghost, and that he heard the
blowing of ghostly trumpet, ami wailings
over her tomb. He was like the infidel
Lord Lytton, who was sometimes so
frightened that he rushed into IN, bed
room of friend in order that he might, in
his company, shield himself from the ter
rors of the spiritual world. At last he had
to forsake his splen did mansion, be cause it
was too near the grave Of one whom he
had ruined.
The poet Byron Confesses how his sin
had found him out To escape from
thoughts of sin and self he took TO travel
ing. as thousands do; but he felt like the
unresting Cain, for travellers beyond the
seas change their cline but not their con-
science. Memory and conscience break
out like plague in ship in which the
prodigul hopes 10 sail anew from his sin.
II would be grand mistake to thinI:
that only great sinners AMI great sins are
found out by conscience. De Quincy, tho
opium eater. tells US what he felt about it.
He saw mighty phantom, ever growing
more and more colossal, striding after him
in pursuit from forgotten days. One folly
most people would have thought little of
tone folly AZ the aga OF seventeen
haunted him for more than half a century.
He used often to liken conscience to the
whispering gallery in st. PaurS, London
4 word whispered ever so gently is loudly
re-echoed at the other. In youth con-
science child him in sullen whispers; in old
age at the other end of his life gallery. the
same conscience spoke to him as in peals
of thunder The still, small voice which
the boy needed not returned to the old man
like the crack Of doom in terrible self-re-
proaches.
What an awful discoverer Of sin your
conscience is, Be sure your sin, whether
1t be great or small, will find you out.
Augustine says that his old SINS haunted
him in his dreams. Cowper used to sit in
the farthest corner of the room, imagining
that the voice of conscience was loud
enough for every one to hear 1t. Samuel
Johnson told friend that the reason re
often started and spoke to himself in COM
pany was that he was upbraiiing himself
for the sins of his youth. a man whose
outward life was blameless told me that
he once lay at deaths door for few days.
He remembered his whole past life, or.
rather he saw 1t all as in a picture. HIS
mind was strangely strengthened and en-
largcd. so that he was able to take in the
whole at once. Little acts done in his
boyhood, such as unkind words and the
stealing OF little things from his mother
and sisters, thousands of such deeds
seemed as if done yesterday, and filed him
with a worse pain than that of the BODY.
How pitiful Is the case of the man whose
sin, unforgivcn, finds him out when death
= knocking at the door. l have seen such
cases, and pray God that l may never see
the like again. Death comes and the dying
man not ready, declaring that he has no
hope! But death won't wait God grant
that your SIN may find yol out now. so that
death may find you undismayed.
Sin finds Us out in the world beyond.
Moses does not say when or where our sin
will find Us out; but he says that it will
surely find US out some time and sOme-
where. Many great sinners are never
found out on earth, especially in foreign
lands where the law is weak; their guilty
secrets are buried with them in their
graves. In others, conscience L.s been
slain or silenced, SO that they are not
found out in the world within. "But tits
not 50 above" Many wicked men die
calmly without any fear. Yet sin finds
every sinner out before the great White
Throne.
The wonderful discoveries OF science
show US, in many strange and startling
ways. our sins, if not forgiven, may find
US out in the other world. A church in
Italy was so built by accident that it formed
what is called = whispering gallery. One
or two found out the secret, and when their
nei2hbors were confessing their sins in a
whisper to the priest they heard all dis
tinctly at the other end. Now. this whole
|world may be by design what that church
Twas by accident and the sinners whisper
ION earth may be heard by an ear in Heaven
Between earth and Heaven there may b
an echo, informing against the sinner.
Again, science proves that every &C.
ton leaves a mark that can never be de-
stroyed-oceans can't wash i: out Apart
from pardoning mercy, we shall have TO
face an indelible past. You know how
are taken. Well. some dis
coveries suggest that all our deeds may be
in the skies. On the Judg-
ment Day the sinner may be, as it were,
ushered into a room. the walls Of which |
are covered with bright pictures Of all his |